Archive for Twitter
Automation and Interaction: Why We Need BOTH in our Social Media Platform
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At long last we have reached that prophetic (if not hyped up) year of 2012 so many of us have been awaiting. According to many futurists, this year will mark the beginning of unparalleled expansion of awareness and global consciousness. And based upon the explosion of social media over the past few years — and most especially its evolution in 2011 — we do indeed seem to be ever-increasingly expanding our potential for awareness of our world. How many of our grandparents could possibly have imagined being “friends” with people from every corner of the planet, or having possibly tens of thousands of “followers” who know your name, what you do, and what you stand for?
But with our expanded capacity for connecting with others, we also find ourselves with an information overload. Sometimes there is just too much coming at us all at once, and we can get overwhelmed. We’ve all tried different ways to organise both our incoming and outgoing data. When it comes to organising our social media, integration and automation seemed like “the” solution, but we find ourselves yet again in an information overload situation. There are just so many different options on the market that we often find ourselves asking, “Isn’t there one RIGHT way of delivering and filtering through my social media information?”
In my work, I help business owners (primarily authors and holistic professionals) set up their social media integration and automation, and train them how to use it. But the induction process into the world of Twitter, Facebook and the like can often shake up many emotions and challenge many beliefs. Some people who are new to social media might have a pre-conceived idea that automation takes the “social” out of social media, and therefore eschew the convenience automation has to offer. These people end up working harder rather than smarter, and risk burning out on social media before they reap the rewards. Others, who don’t really like the idea of social media at all, but see it as a “necessary evil”, want to automate everything and don’t want to bother connecting with their audience. As a result, these kinds of people frequently become convinced that the lack of response they are receiving from their audience means, “Twitter (or whatever) is simply a waste of time!”
Yes, I’ve heard it all before.
Regardless of whether you recognise yourself as being similar to one of these two personality types, or you are already an enthusiastic social media devotee, let me assure you, social media can have a massive impact upon the success of your business. My own business was utterly built upon it! But in order to make it work “smart” for you, and to ensure you receive all the benefits it has to offer, you need to understand that BOTH automation AND interpersonal connection are EQUALLY important to running an efficient and effective social media platform because:
Automation is needed to deliver your content.
Interaction is needed to build relationships.
Learning the balance between these two can be a steep learning curve for many of my new clients. As demonstrated in the previous examples, those that depend upon one and fail to implement the other tend not to reap the results they seek.
But what makes the learning curve even more challenging is that to stay on top of things, you need to get used to changing your strategies all the time. This is because the social network platforms themselves (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, etc) are always in a state of evolution, and the plethora of third-party applications available to support these platforms are also always in a state of continual change.
The plain truth about social media:
Sometimes clients come to me expecting to learn the definitive system for social media. And while I tend to do things in a systematic way for myself, the truth is: there is NO magic “one size fits all” way to “do” social media. Your situation is not the same as mine. Your business is not the same. Your communication style is not the same. Your audience is not the same. Sure, there will be many similarities, but if ANYONE out their claims to be a guru, and tells you they have “the” one-stop solution for your needs, you’d be pretty safe to bet it’s a scam. Don’t spend your money on such claims (I’ve lost more than a few quid on such false promises back when I was a newbie).
But the fact that there are so many variables is not the only reason why there is no end-all magic bullet for social media. It is also because all the social media tools out there are all continuously changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. And as they change they create a butterfly effect upon each other. So you really have resign yourself to the fact that social media is a fluid system, and that there will be a continual process of learning involved. Even a Rubic Cube is easier to figure out, because the cube is a stable system that doesn’t change.
But the good news is, the more you know, the easier it is to adapt to this ever-flowing sea of change. For that reason, I thought it would be a good idea to write an eBook, going through some of the currently most popular social media tools for distributing your content:
Buy Kindle edition on Amazon US/Canada for only $1.97
Buy Kindle edition on Amazon UK for only £1.28
A FEW CUSTOMER REVIEWS ON AMAZON
5.0 out of 5 stars
Personal Insights from an Expert
“This is a must read for anyone who wants to simplify the technology of building a platform and creating “raving fans” and supportive friends. Not only is this ebook comprehensive, it is personal—you feel like you are getting the inside scoop from a best friend. Lynn knows her stuff and I especially enjoyed reading the history of her personal experience from using each of the tools.
~ Michelle Lynn Casto, soul coach, author
San Antonio, TX
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read for anyone trying to create a Social Platform
“Lynn’s knowledge of social media is astounding. This book will help me reach my 2012 goals of building my platform to over 50,000 on FB, Twitter, and YouTube. Not only is her approach straightforward and easy to read, she shares the pitfalls as well as the highlights of several popular platforms. I never knew it could be this easy to reach so many people providing a consistent stream of useful content.”
~ “Desert Networker” (aka Renee Baribeau) author, healer
Paradise, California
5.0 out of 5 stars
Social Media Tools – Which are best for me?
“I am certainly no computer geek or guru and have not utilized social media fully because I didn’t know how. Lynn Serafinn has given us non-geeks some “tool tips.” She has rated five of the most popular social media tools and given us tips on how to utilize them effectively to increase our presence on the Internet. If you have a magnificent web site and the best possible product but no one sees it, what good does it do you? “Social Media on AutoPilot” will help you make good choices on programs and make these programs work for you. It is a clear, concise, honest and very helpful book which details the strengths and weaknesses of each tool – Ping, TweetDeck, Twaitter, HootSuite and TweetAdder. Yes, she uses some “computer speak” but you can handle it and it will definitely be to your advantage. Anyone who wants to be found on the Internet and/or increase their Internet presence can benefit from ‘Social Media on Autopilot’.”
~ Irene Conlan, radio host, writer, blogger
Phoenix, AZ5.0 out of 5 stars
How to Handle Social Media Auto-Apps — Demystified & Humanized
“Like many bookish, word-centric types, I am not naturally attracted to social media’s many techno-centric, third-party apps that allow you to speed up your Twitter management process, and bulk-feed useful information to your followers. I tend to prefer the simpler, slower approach: going directly to each SM site and responding to followers from there. But Lynn Serafinn’s new book changed my mind. Not only does it demystify five of the main automating apps, it includes many not-so-problem-free experiences that the author has had with most (thereby winning my complete confidence — because of her complete honesty).Brilliantly, I think, Serafinn ensured excellent balance in reviewing these auto-apps by creating a three-part evaluation process — listing the “Nice” qualities, the “Necessary” qualities, and the “Nightmarish” . . . results. So you, as a result, learn exactly what to avoid, what aspects of each to circumvent with a judicious SM two-step, and what to more or less wholeheartedly embrace…one of the most useful aspects of this book, for me at least, is a smattering of social-media-app stories (both Serafinn’s own stories and those of her clients) that help to illustrate how SM apps can be used successfully with quite astonishing results.
For someone who, like me, would prefer to just go ahead and use techno tools without having to investigate their many complex innards first, this book is a terrific timesaving guide that will help you leap over the techno chasm and get to the good stuff: connecting with people who matter to you and your business.”
~ Laurel Marshfield, developmental editor, ghostwriter
Philadelphia, PA‘As a business mentor and a serial entrepreneur, it is important that I stay on top of the latest marketing tools and strategies. I also believe in simplifying and streamlining your life as much as possible. What Lynn Serafinn has done with her new book, Social Media on Autopilot, is truly genius. Not only has she saved me hours of time to learn all of these great social media tools, but she clearly explains how to keep an authentic connection with your followers and potential clients, which is very important to me. And, in Lynn’s great writing style and entertaining sense of humor, she gives us the Nice and Nightmare insights so we know what to expect.
Lynn Serafinn was the master mind behind the launch of my book, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreamsinto Reality to No. 1 in the US and Canada. She has a very unique talent of combining her uncanny tech savvy capabilities with her ability to incorporate it all into the big picture plan of a marketing campaign. Not only will this book help you demystify the social media maze, but also teach you how to utilize it to grow your business. I plan on recommending it to all of my clients.’
~ Allison Maslan, president Blast Off Business and Life Mentoring,
#1 Bestselling Author and Online Television Show Host
Don’t own a Kindle? You can download a FREE Kindle Reader App for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry or Android (and new ones being added regularly) from Amazon:
Amazon US/Canada: http://amzn.to/FreeReadingAppsUS
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/FreeReadingAppsUK
In Social Media on Autopilot: Nice, Necessary or Nightmare? [Kindle edition], I bring you 5 details product reviews intended for business owners on five of today’s most popular social media applications: Ping, TweetDeck, Twaitter, HootSuite and Tweet Adder. Each product is evaluated on virtually every feature it offers, and ranked in terms of its usefulness, reliability, automation capabilities, interaction capability and mobility.
Accessible reading even for the “newbie”, this report and help you find out how the pros use Twitter, Facebook and other social networks without selling their souls or spending every waking hour at their computer. At the end of this report, you will also find some useful bonus materials covering options for integrating your media, and some ideas for using social media apps on your mobile phone.
I have helped dozens of authors and online business owners reach the top of their field through social media. Nearly all my learning has come the “hard way” by spending countless hours at my desk, trying to find products and figure out what was best. For a mere $2.99, this detailed report (at 15,770 words, it would have been about 50 pages if I had printed it in paperback format) you save yourself months of research and trial and error.
There are even a few free gifts for you at the back of the eBook.
I hope you find this booklet useful. If you do, please do come back and leave a comment below (or better yet, post it on Amazon!). Also, if you have any suggestions for eBooks you would like me to write, please let me know that too in the comments below. That would be REALLY helpful to me!
And do please subscribe to the Spirit Authors blog for more info and insight into the world of writing, publishing and book promotions.
Enjoy going on autopilot!
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach and teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and bestselling author. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mind-body-spirit authors. She is also the creator of Spirit Authors, which offers training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, she supports the work of the Transition Town network in her hometown of Bedford, England.
Lynn’s other books:
International #1 Bestseller in Business Ethics, Marketing and Communication (Dec 2011)
- The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell (PAPERBACK)
- The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell (KINDLE)
Spirituality Bestseller (2009):
The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self (2009)
To contact Lynn for coaching, campaign management or media appearances, please fill in the form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
5 Easy Ways Authors Can Use Audio to Promote Their Books
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Author, book promotion coach Lynn Serafinn shares her tips on building your list by giving away great audio to your social media network.
Authors are always looking for ways to promote their books online. However, many are under the mistaken impression that promoting your book means you need to put excerpts on your blog or give away free chapters for download. And while giving away parts of your book might seem to make a lot of sense, it’s not necessarily the most effective way to promote your book online. The Internet is flooded with information. Even free content has got to kick some serious butt to make an impression on readers these days, who probably have a backlog of things on their “to read” list.
So instead of running the risk of becoming yet another unread masterpiece, I’d like to suggest authors put down the pen (or their keyboard) for a little while and start recording their voice instead.
Yes, I’m talking about giving away audio instead of all your precious writing. Why audio? Well, for one thing, if you follow some of the tips below, you don’t have to do much to produce the content. Secondly, audio has a higher perceived value than simple text. And lastly, audio get your audience closer to you. Speaking to your audience directly, and letting them get to know the sound of your voice, is both powerful and intimate.
What kind of audio can authors give to their readers?
Here are some ideas:
- Get yourself booked on some Internet radio shows and then give away the recordings of some of your interviews (ask the host if it’s ok first, of course). Make sure the interviews are content-rich and interesting to the listener. If they are just “pitches” about your book, no one will be interested in them. In a future article, I’ll give you some tips about getting booked on shows.
- If you don’t have any interviews in the coffers, set up a webinar on your topic (or a series of them), use the recordings of those. Not only will it be a good promotional activity on the day, but you can reuse the audio as an ongoing give-away gift.
- You can also do a live reading of the most powerful part of your book in front of a small audience and record that, or record it directly into your PC if you don’t happen to have an audience on hand.
Use your imagination, but make sure you give away at least 15 minutes of audio as your free gift. Some of my giveaways have as many as 8 hours of audio, depending upon the subject matter.
How good must the quality be?
If you are recording at home, be sure your audio is recorded and mixed down to MP3 format at a sample rate of 44.1kHz at 16 bits. If your recording is from an Internet broadcast, it will be compressed and the audio quality will be much lower resolution, but for a free gift, that is usually acceptable. Some conference line recordings, however, are at set to such a low fidelity they are really not usable. Do a test run first and listen back to it. If there’s a lot of noise (indicating low bit rate) or it sounds like you have a lisp every time you say the letter “s” (indicating the sample rate it too low), it might not be a wise choice.
HOW do you deliver your free audio gift?
Be sure you have created a way for people to DOWNLOAD the audio, rather than use an online player (such as Audio Acrobat). Remember that people like to play MP3s on their iPod or other portable player while driving in their car or commuting on the train to and from work.
Secondly, don’t deliver your audios all at once. Spread them out over a few days or send one audio per week. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is to allow your audience to take their time “consuming” your content. People might be speed readers, but there is no such thing as a “speed listener.” An hour of audio takes an hour to listen to it. When you deliver too much audio all at once, people are LESS likely to listen to any of it (I still have a couple of my offers set up like this, and keep meaning to change them). But the other reason why it is a good idea to spread out your delivery of audios is this: when you deliver four audios over a period of four weeks, it allows you to build a stronger relationship with your audience.
Make your “squeeze page” (the page where they enter their name and email to get your audio) as MINIMAL as possible. Don’t confuse the reader with other offers or links on your page. Make the audio the-one-and-only offer on the page, and resist the urge to link out to other pages of your website.
On your download page (the page people go to after they sign up for your audio) make sure you have a “call to action”, which should comprise of a picture of your book, a quote from a great endorsement, and a link to buy your book online (don’t forget to use your affiliate link if you have one!). Also put this same call to action at the end of any follow-up emails you might send them. If you are delivering a new audio every week, your readers will see this call to action every time they go to retrieve their new audio.
WHERE do you offer these free audios?
Ok, so here’s where the magic comes in. Here are some of my favourite uses. And the nice thing about them is that once you have them set up, you just walk away from them and let them do their magic:
- As a ‘thank you’ gift when they subscribe to your ezine/ newsletter (this is probably the most common way people use them)
- As a ‘welcome gift’ when they “like” your fan page on Facebook
- As a ‘bonus gift’ on a JV campaign for another author’s book launch
- As a ‘Thanks for Following Me’ gift to new Twitter followers using Social Oomph
- As a ‘random gift’ on Twitter or Facebook. Every now and then when you tweet, just tell people you’ve got a free audio for them. You can use Twaitter to schedule them to go out 1x a day, 1x week, or whatever you like.
And here’s a Bonus Tip:
*** Give your audio as a totally ‘unexpected gift’ in your bio at the end of an article… like the one you see below. 
I myself have numerous audio offers going out on a regular basis throughout the year, which add hundreds of new names to my list without my even trying. I hope these ideas spark your creative juices and help you build your own list and social media following with lots and lots of wonderful new people.
I love to know whether or not you found this article to be helpful. Please DO leave a comment below to let me know, or to write to me at http://spiritauthors.com/contact ask any questions you may have about this information.
Happy recording!
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Did you know that a lot of nice people hate marketing?
Artists, authors and holistic business owners are some of the most common. Maybe YOU are one of these people? Find out about the relationship between marketing, business owners, and the future of our planet in this 10-page eBook and 18 minute audio book “Why Nice People HATE Marketing” at http://spiritauthors.com/pages/bonus/why-nice-people-hate-marketing-request.html which is a sneak peek at just a handful of the cutting-edge ideas presented in the upcoming book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell by Lynn Serafinn coming at September 2011. You can pre-order the book now on Amazon.
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What is a Virtual Blog Tour? How Do You Set One Up?
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Book promotion coach, campaign manager for #1-selling authors, Lynn Serafinn, explains what a Virtual Blog Tour is, how to create one and the benefits of a VBT.
When I organise a book launch campaign for my author clients, I always include a Virtual Blog Tour. Every time I start a new campaign I am invariably asked, both by my clients and by their Joint Venture Partners (JVPs), “What exactly is a Virtual Blog Tour?” I thought it would be a good idea to write an article explaining what it is, and why it is a great promotional tool when properly organised.
What is a VBT?
A Virtual Blog Tour (VBT) is an online “event” wherein an author “visits” a different blog each day during a specified period of time, generally 2-4 weeks in duration. For instance, if your VBT were 2 weeks long, there would be 14 blogs, and each blogger would be assigned a specific day on the tour. In selecting blogs on which to appear, the author would seek out bloggers who have good traffic aimed at specific target audience(s) congruent with the topic of the book.
Technically, the author doesn’t “visit” these blogs. Rather, on the assigned tour day, the blogger would post a blog about the author’s book. Some blog platforms (such as WordPress) allow you to schedule a post in advance, making it more convenient for the blogger by automating the process.
The content of the blog could be an article about the author, a book review or an interview. When I organise a VBT, I generally prefer to use interviews, which are organised in advance between the blogger and author.
Organising a VBT
The way I organise the interview is to provide a good selection (10-20) of sample topics or story angles on which the author could answer questions. Then, each blogger provides (well in advance) 3 original questions he/she would like to ask the author, aimed at their particular reading audience.
Recently I designed a VBT for a book on the topic of OCD. Here are some of the sample topics I provided my bloggers:
- What OCD is and what it is not
- What doctors know or don’t know about OCD
- What parents need to know about OCD
- What teachers need to know about OCD
- Being a parent with OCD
- OCD in personal relationships
- Having OCD in a work environment
- OCD and health issues…
And so on.
When I send the sample topics to the VBT bloggers, I ask them to formulate 3 questions based upon a topic (or topics) they feel would be of greatest interest to their readers. The questions are sent to the author several weeks in advance of the tour. The author provides written answers to the bloggers’ questions, and together we assemble the “virtual interview” into a structured format, so the bloggers can more or less copy and paste it into their blogs (of course, they can edit it as they choose).
The format we provide the bloggers goes something like this:
“Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 4 of the Virtual Blog Tour for The Super Duper Book by author Mary Jones. Yesterday, Mary visited John Smith’s blog at [link to John’s blog]. Below is the great interview I did with Mary about how to be super-duper.
[Interview]
I hope you enjoyed this interview with Mary Jones and that you’ll check out The Super Duper Book by Mary Jones coming to Amazon on [date]. You can receive a collection of great gifts when you buy her book on the day of her launch, including one from me: [name of blogger’s gift]. To find out how to buy Mary’s book and receive these gifts, go to [link to author’s sales page].
Be sure to follow Mary tomorrow when the next stop on her Virtual Blog Tour is Charlie Brown’s blog at [link to Charlie’s blog].”
Promoting a VBT
When I organise a VBT, I create a “Tweet” for every stop on the tour, and give them to all bloggers and JVPs well in advance, asking them to post at least one update per blogger. That means, on their designated day on the tour, dozens of people would be sending out updates with a link to Mary’s blog post to potentially hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (depending upon the size of your campaign team).
Additionally, the author would post the tour calendar, with all the links, on his/her own blog.
Being a blogger on a VBT has many benefits:
- It provides bloggers with easy, original content for their readers.
- Because an organised team of networkers is sending out updates for each stop on the tour, it has the potential to drive 1000s of new readers to each blog.
- It helps increase search engine rankings for the blogs, as the blog is linked to, both forwards and backwards, the other blogs on the tour.
- Bloggers on the tour get to connect with new bloggers who share common interests and speak to similar audiences.
Of course, for authors, a VBT is wonderful because:
- There is a diversity of content going out about their book during a concentrated period of time.
- The content is easy to create.
- It expands their network.
- They get their book promoted to 1000s of people every day for the duration of the tour.
- The content you have created could be reused for other purposes.
And don’t forget, if a blog post is particularly interesting, both the author and the blogger can “reTweet” about it every now and then after the tour.
I hope you found this information useful. Please do feel free to leave your questions or comments below. And if you would like to discuss setting up a book launch or VBT for your book, feel free to contact me via the contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact and tell me about your book project.
About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors
Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced FOUR #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.
Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).
Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.
Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Coming up over the next few months:
- 3-day summit on Evolution of Consciousness
- 3-day summit on Cellular Memory Release
- 4-day summit on Healing the Corporate World
- Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.
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Your Book Marketing Plan – Who Should You Be Promoting To?
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Great tips from guest blogger and Virtual Faculty member Dana Lynn Smith, “The Savvy Book Marketer”
As you write your book and develop your book marketing plan, one of the first priorities is to define your target audiences.
The primary target audience for your book is the “ideal reader” that the book was written specifically for. In your book marketing plan, define the characteristics of your ideal reader, asking questions such as these:
- What is their age range, gender, and education level?
- Where do they live?
- What is their family status – single, married with kids, retired couple?
- What is their income level and occupation?
- What are their interests and hobbies?
- What makes this person the ideal reader for your book?
- What are their book buying habits?
In addition to the ideal reader, most books have several secondary audiences. Your book marketing plan should include strategies for reaching audiences such as these:
Readers – people who buy the book to read. This is the most obvious category and it includes your primary audience as well as secondary audiences who have an interest in your topic or genre.
Purchasers – people who buy the book for someone else. For example, people buy books as gifts, parents and grandparents purchase books for children, women buy men’s health books, companies and organizations purchase books to give away as gifts and premiums. Who would be likely to purchase your book for someone else, and how can you reach those folks?
Retailers – companies who buy your book to sell it to others. If you’re selling through physical bookstores or other retailers, you have the task of convincing these resellers that your book will sell in their stores and demonstrating how you can help generate demand.
Influencers – people who communicate with your target customers and can let them know about your book. The influencers may be the most important category of all, especially in online marketing and social media. Think about how much you can multiply your marketing efforts when other people spread the word to their own readers, customers, and networks.
Your book marketing plan should outline specific tactics for reaching influencers, including print, broadcast and online media. You can reach the media through traditional publicity efforts as well as online press releases and article distribution.
Other important influencers include authors, consultants, and bloggers who cater to your target customers. These folks can mention you, your website, and/or your book in several ways, including blog posts, links, Twittering, ezine articles, and media sharing tools like Digg.
Here are some tips on working with influencers:
- Search the Internet to compile a list of the top websites, blogs, ezines, magazines, newsletters, online forums, books, ebooks, clubs, and association that cater to your target market or cover your topic.
- Study each site to get a good understanding of what they do and how it relates to your book, and look for possible promotional opportunities.
- Write a thoughtful, customized email or letter sincerely complimenting the prospect about their site, publication, or organization, and suggesting some specific ways that you might work together to your mutual benefit.
It’s also important to read the top blogs and online forums on your list and look for opportunities to make useful comments about posts. When commenting, include a short signature such as “John Smith, author of How to Grow Roses.” See this article for tips on how you can subtly promote your book by commenting on blogs.
How can you enhance your book marketing plan with strategies for promoting to all of your target audiences?
Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of the Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter. She in a member of the Virtual Faculty here at Spirit Authors. Click HERE to download 5 free podcasts from Spirit Authors, where you can hear Dana speaking on “Pre-Publication Marketing Musts.”
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7 Keys to Writing Great Ezine Copy for Your Book Launch
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Campaign manager Lynn Serafinn shares a simple formula to give power to your words
If you are planning an Amazon campaign for your book launch, you will need the help of a great network of personal and professional friends to help you. But something you might not have thought about is the fact that you will need to provide some “ezine copy” for them to use to help promote your book. That’s right: YOU will have to provide the article or articles your “joint venture partners” (JVPs) will send out to their lists.
The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, your JVPs are probably pretty busy, and if you ask them to write an article for you, it is less likely they will have it ready in time to meet your timetable. Secondly, YOU are the person who knows best what you want to say about your book. Those are the two most important reasons why you should write the “copy” (article) for your JVPs’ newsletters when they offer to promote you. And you’ll need to write several over the course of the campaign, in order to speak to the different audiences your partners represent.
I know this might sound a little daunting to some of you, especially those of you who don’t like the idea of “selling” (which covers just about 99.9% of the mind-body-spirit authors I know), so I thought I would give you a little formula to get you started, so you could see it is not so much about selling at all, as it is about connecting and inspiring the reader. It’s a stripped-down part of a lesson I teach in Module 4 (Your Book Campaign – Designing and Delivering) on the Spirit Authors site.
When you write your copy, make sure it meets the following criteria:
- It is between 400-700 words.
- It is written casually in the 3rd person as if the JVP is writing about you.
- It arouses curiosity in the title and opening line.
- It inspires the reader by sharing something meaningful about you and your book.
- It has a specific place where the JVP can (and should) personalise it.
- It’s NOT a sales letter but…
- It has a short, clear call to action at the end (i.e., it tells people when, where and why to get your book).
How to keep it real
The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (yes, I thought you’d be happy to know that!).
The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing the article. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure your partners can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means that you need to send copies of your book to your partners, do so (or at least a pdf version of it). It will help them say (nice) things about you in a much more authentic way.
And most of all, don’t make your ezine copy just about the book. Make it about YOU. Audiences like to know the person behind the book. Talk about how the book came to be. Bring the reader on a personal journey. Let them into your world. If you only talk about the book, a vital human connection will be missing.
I hope you found this article useful as you prepare for your book launch. If you have any questions or comments, I would be happy to reply to them below.
The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (I thought you’d be happy to know that!). The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing it. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure they can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means you need to give advance copies of your book to your partners, BE GENEROUS and do so. At the very least, send them a pdf of the galley print.
See an example of this in action
If you want to see an example of this in action, have a look at the article I wrote called “How to Have a Life Well Lived” on my “Cosmic Universe” blog. I was the campaign manager for Patrick Ryan’s book campaign, so I made this copy (and several others) for the JVPs on his Amazon campaign. If you analyse it carefully, you will see 7 key elements I mention above.
It must have worked, because his book went to #1 in spirituality in Canada and #2 in the US on the day of his launch in April 2010. 
Want to learn more?
Come along to Spirit Authors and take a 14-day “Test Drive” for only $1. You can test drive Module 4 (about Amazon launch campaigns) or another learning module to suit your needs on your writing journey. To find out which module is the “write” one for you, go to http://spiritauthors.com and answer the short self-assessment on that page.
AND… if you are seeking a manager for your mind-body-spirit campaign, fill in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact and tell me about your book project. Please note I only accept a limited amount of clients per year. Please allot 4-6 months for your launch.
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
Transformation Coach, Book Promotion Coach, Author, radio host
Creator of Spirit Authors
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5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign
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Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to support them as a book promotion coach/consultant. In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together.
For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients.
The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch. The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank. The reason why people will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book) is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts.
Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have brought together. Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of Module 4 at Spirit Authors. For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going.
Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign
First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur. Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign:
- Bonus gift offers from JVPs
- Email/ezine blasts
- Twitter campaign
- A Contest
- Virtual Blog Tour
There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here. For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way.
Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials
Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift.
A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what is an appropriate bonus gift. A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift. A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location. The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all. You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift.
As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info. I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking.
Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups
Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings. Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar.
Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch. This sign up form should be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book. I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about. Be sure to mark your diary.”
Step 4: Create Promo Copy
The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs to use for your campaign. There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs:
- Newsletter/ezine articles
- “Tweets” (for Twitter)
- “Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour)
I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month).
I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less. It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign vibrant, fun and very effective.
A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour.
I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors. In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy.
Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs
The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs. I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a break down of how everything will run. I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document. I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus.
Follow a Real Live Launch
As I am currently the project leader for the upcoming Amazon campaign for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch at http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/booklaunch/index.cfm. As of this writing, we are still finalising some details on it (and there are a few more JVPs coming along). Of course, I also hope you’ll check out Patrick’s book and sign up for a launch reminder while you’re on that page (I made the video, by the way. Do you like it?).
And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book. Hopefully they will give you ideas of how to make your own. Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!).
This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign. If you’d like to know more about creating, running and benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my 8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing and Delivering. For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out.
If you feel you need a more personal touch, fill in a contact form on the Spirit Authors site to request a 1-to-1 consultation. Please be aware that I only take on a limited amount of book launch clients throughout the year, and that we will require 4-6 months to work on your launch, depending upon the strength of your online platform.
I hope you found this whistle-stop tour useful. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you think.
[mlb /]
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How Twitter Changed My Life
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Ok, now you are probably going to think I’ve lost the plot.
Twitter changed my life. Let me tell you how.
AND I am going to attempt to tell this story in lines of 140 characters or less.
It all started when I launched my book “The Garden of the Soul” in April 2009.
After a year of mastering this “thing” called social networking, I created an Amazon book campaign.
I found many JVPs (joint venture partners), mainly from Twitter.
Some who helped were @InspiredSheila @SuzieCheel @KSchulweis @BrendaAdelman @RuthHegarty @JoeRumbolo @LolaFayemi (see next)
AND @HeidiRichards @AwakenedWisdom @LindaClairePuig @jenngivler @audaciouseditor @GailSussMill @Gloreebe @jessicamcgj @SpiritCoach #ff
Also ran a Virtual Blog Tour with peeps like @MoonPoppy @DuncanBrodie and many others.
Also ran a Twitter contest. @JulieAnnTurner won a signed copy of my book.
Anyway…
Long story short, my self-published book became an Amazon bestseller in #spirituality #mind-body-spirit and #self-help.
When “The Garden of the Soul” made bestseller, Tweets and RTs went viral. #gots
I think it was June when @SouthsideBroadc contacted me to be on their radio show. I soon became a regular guest.
Thru @SouthsideBroadc I met @SpiritusShelagh who has since become one of my closest friends.
July 2009: blogger/editor @BookEditorLM wrote me on Twitter wanting to do a blog piece on me: http://bit.ly/c8hbCa
Aug 2009: @BookEditorLM asked @tonyeldridge if he would repost that article. He asked me to write a new one.
Oct 2009: @tonyeldridge published my new article “Pre-Natal Care for Your Book” http://bit.ly/bWCmQA
Same month @AllisonMaslan (whom I didn’t know) read that article. Sent me DM asking me to coach her 4 Amazon launch.
I put together Amazon campaign for @AllisonMaslan ‘s new #book #BlastOff!
Nov 2009: I asked @writersinthesky (whom I had met on Ning) to come and help us put the campaign together.
We put together another great team of JVPs.
If I named all the Tweeple who helped us on #BlastOff! I think I’d need another day to write this.
Meanwhile lots of people were asking me for book advice. I decided to start a new site called Spirit Authors. http://spiritauthors.com
Dec 20 2009: I set up Twitter profile @SpiritAuthors and Facebook fan page. http://facebook.com/SpiritAuthors
Started Twitter/FB campaign to drive people to fan page. By Christmas day there were 100 fans.
Jan 2010: Did another campaign to get 500 fans by my 55th birthday end of Jan. I got 600+
Jan 19, 2010: Allison’s book launched. Twitter & FB went viral. “Blast Off” reached #1 in US/Canada. http://bit.ly/RXpQu
RT @AllisonMaslan’s “Blast Off” reached #1 in US/Canada. http://bit.ly/RXpQu
Jan 21, 2010: Success of launch attracted attention of @AllisonMaslan ’s literary agent @wgtwelve. He’s also @EckhartTolle ‘s agent
As an author, I am now represented by @wgtwelve.
More and more #mind-body-spirit #authors come to me to create campaigns for them.
New Amazon campaigns: @AwakenedWisdom (April 20), @NeuroBooks (May 11) and @wgtwelve (Nov).
From Twitter contacts, I quickly assembled team of 18 VIP experts for Spirit Authors Grand Opening http://bit.ly/9pfpJV
VIPS: @wordywoman @BookMarketer @CaronGoode @DayaDeviDoolin @inspiredwriter @docmarion @AlanSeale plus many already mentioned.
Nearly 500 people registered 4 the #Spirit #Authors Grand Opening http://bit.ly/9pfpJV
My good friend @SpiritusShelagh was my co-host for the event. What a source of strength she is.
Oz Tweep @charlyjl was a wellspring of technical support in getting the site ready. Couldn’t have done it without her.
April 20, 2010: @AwakenedWisdom ALSO becomes #1 #spirituality #book thx 2 Twitter! #AWEbook
GR8 expectations 4 @NeuroBooks May 11. #OCDbook
1000+ peeps on Facebook page. http://facebook.com/SpiritAuthors
NOW: @SpiritAuthors open and I have long waiting list of #book campaign clients. On #Spirit #Authors I teach new authors how to set use #Twitter to build a promotional platform and #Amazon launch… as well as many other things (Oops! That’s more than 140 characters!)
Ok… enough with the Twitterspeak!!!
I am quite serious when I say Twitter has changed my life. Yes, my own book would never have become a bestseller without Twitter. Yes, I could never have helped Allison become a number-1 seller. Yes, I would not have gotten some fab new clients and an amazing literary agent. And yes, I would never have thought to create Spirit Authors and now have a blossoming new business as a result.
But it isn’t REALLY about business at all.
Have a look at all the Twitter links above. These are not just links. These are all REAL people whom I have come to know, respect and care about over the past year. Even though some of us are separated by tens of thousands of miles, we have all shared many a heart-felt conversation over the phone, and have been there for each other through the highs and lows.
And really, there are just so many other wonderful people I have met from Twitter (as well as Facebook, Ning and LinkedIn, in that order), I cannot count them.
When many people first come to Twitter, they don’t “get it”. How can you possibly communicate in 140 characters? How can you possibly make friends with people? How can you possibly build a business from it? WHY would you WANT to do this????
And I’m telling you now—it’s because of the PEOPLE!
I have made more close friends from networking on Twitter than any other form of networking I have ever tried… even more than “live” networks in my home town! While I do love Facebook as well, there is nothing (yet) that can beat Twitter for ideas going viral, and for meeting lots of people who share your interests within a very short period of time.
But as I said, it’s not just about the business. The friends I have met through Twitter are some of the most inspiring, supportive, positive and powerful light-workers I have ever met. That is why I have linked to EVERY one of them above.
So, if you are on Twitter, you should follow them. These are wonderful, beautiful people—get to KNOW them.
As always, your comments below are MOST welcome!
Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn
P. S.: This article was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had a new friend on Twitter @WendyMWarden. Many thanks, Wendy. This was fun to write!
P. P. S.: Knowing HOW to make Twitter (and social networking in general) work for you, both on a business level and on a deeply fulfilling personal level, is something of an art form. This is why I teach it on the Spirit Authors course:
- In Module 2, I teach the fundamental principles of spirit-based promotion so you can create a fertile promotional platform for selling your book online using social networking.
- In Module 4, I teach the “how to’s” of creating an Amazon Book Launch.
- And, of course, there are 3 other modules on starting and writing your book, preparing for publication, and creating a brand and sustainable business from your book.
It’s my hope that by teaching authors (and authors-to-be) the techno-art of Twitter, they will not only find professional fulfilment, but they will also expand their world by connecting to others who understand them and wish to help them grow.
If this sounds like something you would like to explore, I offer a 7-day “Test Drive” on any Spirit Authors learning module for only $1. Visit the site at http://spiritauthors.com and check out the introductory audios and module overviews to see if there is something at Spirit Authors that can help you achieve your writing goals. And if you have any questions, please just fill out a contact form on the site and I promise I will reply personally.
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Lynn's workshop on Spiritual Marketing made me realise how pervasive the conventional fear-based marketing paradigm is and how simple it is to create an alternative based on creativity and cooperation.
I went to Lynn's workshop on Spiritual Marketing on the recommendation of a good friend, who told me that she is the Queen of Networking. She is! It was one of many talks I went to at a week long event. It was fantastic, the best workshop I went to all week! Lynn verbalised and clarified some of my concerns about marketing, having been exposed to various internet courses on building your business. She has opened my eyes to ways of building my business in ways that fit with my values. I will paying more attention to this wise woman.
